A Message From Mayor Nina Jonas: Lessons in Tourism from Iceland 

This spring I went on a trip to Iceland where I was struck by its tourism industry. Since 2000, there have been more visitors to Iceland than residents each year. Incredible!

Iceland has capitalized on everything from six-hour flight layovers to volcanology. The tourism statistics are amazing! The number of visitors to Iceland has increased by 267 percent in the past 15 years, 60 percent in the past five years.    

Icelanders have embraced the opportunities this impressive growth of tourism has brought them. They have hot-spring spas, horse theater, traditional theater, geyser-viewing, walking tours, biking tours, tours of the geothermal plant, ski tours, iceberg trips, glacier tours, horse safaris, saga museums, signs, Game of Thrones tours, farm tours, waterfalls, greenhouses, national parks, northern lights, whale-watching, puffin-viewing and sweater-shopping, and the list keeps growing. Not only are they energetically making tourism activities out of everyday life, but they are hospitable and enthusiastic about the experience.

We rented a car and drove along the southeast coast, stopping at visitor centers to learn about the region's culture. The visitor centers were treasure troves of information guiding us to unique experiences and accommodations. (The interaction at these centers was useful since we didn't have Internet on the road.) Road signs and still more visitor information made traveling easy and interesting.  

We stayed at working farms. These historic farms have diversified their operations by adding guest quarters and restaurants. The rooms were comfortable and charming, the food was fresh and local and visiting the horses and sheep was interesting and real.

We stopped at one farm, Efstidalur, that had added sleeping accommodations and a restaurant plus a specialty ice-cream shop to diversify their dairy farm. The farm has been in the family for 200 years, but the economy changed and it became difficult to support a modern extended family. With the new additions the farm is now able to support three generations and three families. That is impressive entrepreneurship!

The spirit and creativity that Icelanders have to satisfy the world's curiosity about their country is a good lesson in how simple additions and everyday activities can be morphed into a gold mine.

Establishing relationships with other cities in the world can play an important role in fostering tourism as well as developing friendships between people in different nations.

The city of Ketchum has relationships with Tegernsee, Germany and Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy that were initiated in 1984 and 1986, respectively. These two European communities have much in common with Ketchum, including Lignano's love for the late Ernest Hemingway, who lived in Ketchum in his latter years.

The relationship with Lignano began in 1984 when the city dedicated its 10-acre Hemingway Park. Jerry Seiffert, the mayor at the time, along with Jack, Margaux and Muffet Hemingway, went to the dedication. Lignano is northeast of Venice and is the area where Hemingway was an American Red Cross ambulance driver in World War I. Portions of his novels are set in the area around Lignano.

One of Seiffert's prized possessions is the Medal of Peace and Friendship and commendation that the U.S. State Department gave him for spearheading the relationship with Lignano. 

Tegernsee, a weekend destination for Munich residents, lies in a valley with a population of about 20,000, much like the Wood River Valley. Popular activities are skiing, boating and paragliding. Former Ketchum Mayor Ed Simon went paragliding with the mayor of Tergernsee in 2004.

Warm Springs resident Lisa Vierling raises money to help send a local teenager to Tegernsee each summer through her annual Bavarian Christmas Market on Croney Cove on Warm Springs Road. A Bavarian family hosts the student.

Mayors Jonas and Asii Chemnitz Narup of Nuuk, Greenland

Connections continue to take place. Recently, Mayor Jonas met the mayor of Nuuk while visiting Greenland earlier this month. Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, is also the country's largest city with a population of 15,000. It is about 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle, and temperatures average below freezing for seven months of the year. Like Ketchum, Nuuk is a center for hiking, mountain biking and skiing. 

It is a frequent travel destination for Wood River Valley residents, thanks to ski trips offered by local resident Pete Patterson of MountainSpirits.com for the past 15 years. It also is a favorite site for viewing the northern lights.

Administrative Clerk Katie Carnduff, a member of the four-woman team that runs the city clerk's office, has the shortest tenure of the group: She's been with the city only 17 years.

So it's going to be quite a change when she leaves June 5 for a job in Las Vegas. "Moving to Las Vegas is going to be a culture shock, but I have a very good opportunity there," she said. She will work in a property management and real estate office. It will be an easy career transition for her husband, a search-engine optimization specialist who works from a home office, she added.

"I'm going to miss the recreation and all there is to do in Ketchum, especially the fact that it's easy to go on a short hike over my lunch hours," Carnduff said.

Her favorite part of the job? The camaraderie with the women who have been in the office together for almost two decades. "We all work together incredibly well," she said.

Her most memorable experience? It's not one big event, she said, but the small parts of Ketchum life that have made her job so special. "It's things like getting May Day flowers from the Girl Scouts every year, the preschool kids coming to sing Christmas carols at City Hall, and being called by name at the post office and the bank. I say hello to all the people I know on the street during my daily walk to the post office. These are the things that are going to stick with me, and make me miss this community.

"I have worked under four city administrators and five different mayors. There is a spirit of public service at the city, and it has been great to be a part of it," she said.

Carnduff grew up on a farm near Twin Falls and came to Ketchum to be near her sister, a teacher in Bellevue. "I was lucky enough to get the job with the city," she recalls.

The city clerk position will be restructured slightly. City Treasurer/Clerk Sandy Cady will devote all of her time to treasurer's duties, and a new city clerk will be hired. Click to view application. 

"Put a Lid on Every Kid" is the goal of the police department's efforts to see that all bicycle riders in the city wear helmets. The department gives away about 60 children's helmets, as well as some adult helmets, every year. Many are distributed at the annual Police Bike Rodeo, which offers safety inspections and riding tips to children.

In addition, officers carry children's helmets in patrol cars. If officers see a child without a helmet, they stop and offer a free helmet and help with the fitting. Families also may stop by the police station to request a helmet.

Financial need is not a requirement. "Our goal is safety," Police Chief David Kassner said.

Funds for the program come from the community policing budget. In recent years, D. L. Evans Bank and attorney and former Ketchum Mayor Ed Simon also have donated to the program. The bank also donated $125 to last week's Police Bike Rodeo. Children who could literally stop their bicycles on a dime received silver dollars.